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Monday, January 14, 2013

Lost Voices by Sarah Porter

Review

Mermaid fiction
is one of my guilty pleasures when it comes to reading, and Lost Voices has been high on my list of ‘to-reads’
for aggggeeeees. I finally found it available in Australia through one of our
smaller publishers, when I was uploading the new release files at my bookstore.
Yet another reason why working at a bookstore is totally amaze!

Lost Voices
is a unique mermaid story, quite different to the usual fare you get with YA
paranormal fiction. There is no big love story, or triangle (although I believe
that will be developed in future books), the premise of ‘becoming’ a mermaid is
unique, and the story is pretty much entirely set in the ocean – i.e., the
mermaids are not half-human, and don’t get around on land, and can’t go to
school and all that YA-ish stuff. I really, really, loved the choices Sarah
Porter made when constructing her story. The mermaids also do mermaid-ish stuff
– sink ships, covet and steal human treasures, drown seamen by singing to them,
live in caves. I think Porter obviously really loves mer-mythology, and that
was what primarily kept me reading.

I would like to
see, in future books, the mer-world expanded on though – I would like to be
taken deep within that oceanic world, as Porter’s descriptions of sea-life are
interesting, but mostly pretty and harmless. I would like to meet some more mer
‘tribes’, and I am interested to see how pear-shaped things get when humans
begin to learn of the mer existence.

My big gripe with
Lost Voices is that I really
disliked, or didn’t enjoy, most of the characters. They are all mostly vain and
shallow and silly, as I guess teenage mermaids should be, but I think there is
room to go deeper, as is hinted at with the mermaid Kat. I REALLY couldn’t
stand the ‘so hip’ way a lot of the mermaids talked, and personally I was glad
at the end of the book when Luce decides that maybe that tribe isn’t for her.
The best parts of the book are when the mermaids are in action, doing their
mer-thing, instead of talking like Mean
Girls rejects and squabbling over designer clothes.

Lost Voices
certainly piqued my interest to read the rest of the series – if only it would
build on the darkness, the haunting loveliness that appears in flashes, then I
would be completely sold.

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About Me

The Book Grotto is my own little corner of the world dedicated to the very wonderful world of young adult and children's literature. I read so many titles that I just fall in love with, and hope to share a little of that with others - what makes these books great and why you should read them.
I work with books and have studied children's publishing and editing. I am also an author. My children's novel What the Raven Saw will be published in February 2013. I love theatre, mermaids and cabbage patch kids.
Please feel free to say hello at samantha.ellenb@gmail.com. Twitter @SamEllenB